Transform your chaos into cosmos

Category Archives: Health and Nutrition

Once upon a time, the airwaves were flooded with the next magic pill to make people lose weight. People bought them. People fell for the nonsense…I was one of them.

After many years of riding that roller coaster, it has finally become apparent to the masses that those gimmicks are just that.

So what do you need to achieve?

You need the magic potion that I have for you. Pay careful attention. I am going to give you the recipe that you need to succeed. Not just at weight loss, but at life.

Ready?

Got your pen?

Paper?

Here we go:

You need the following:

Belief

Love

Intention

Vision

Brew those things together and you have the winning combination of ingredients required to make the most of your life.

Belief in yourself. Love of yourself. Soulful intention. And your mind’s eye view of you doing what you do.

That’s it. No pills. No scams. No silly gimmicks. Listening to yourself and loving yourself leads you to success in every aspect of your life. Your body, mind and soul know what you need. All you have to do is listen and obey.

Easy, huh?

If it isn’t, we’ll talk about why it isn’t as easy as it sounds next time.

And in case you are a bald eagle hovering over this site, reading…fitness isn’t about the numbers 🙂

Drop me a line and let me know what key ingredient you are missing from your Success Recipe. Thanks for hanging out and reading my wall…let’s get together on Twitter and Facebook, too!

The longer we sit in our chairs; the softer we become. The softer our bodies become; the softer our brains become.

The more processed foods we eat; the murkier our thinking becomes.

We deteriorate at a phenomenal rate…why accelerate it?

Take part in the #15minsofexercise hashtag convo or the #10Burpeesat10 and refresh yourself. REnew your mind, your body and your soul. Feel GOOD again.

Exercises needn’t be exhaustive. They needn’t be aggressive. You can do yoga, tai chi, walking, alternate walking/jogging, core exercises, pilates. You name it. You can improve your life and your love 15mins at a time.

We are what we eat and we become what we do. Do what will bring you success and eat what will fuel it.

Much love to you all! Thanks for stopping by my home on the web!

Since I love to talk too much, leave me a comment and let me know what exercise you can do in 15mins that will leave you feeling refreshed and ALIVE. ❤

As writers, we need to move. We have to pry ourselves from the comfort of our laptops and force ourselves to move in order to stay healthy. Since becoming an official “writer,” I have seen my thighs turn to mush. Not a pretty sight. I was once fit and tone (ok, that was BEFORE the kids), but I have gotten even mushier since the winter.

I challenge myself and you to face the challenges with me that come up as we move through the motions of our days struggling to create bodies of work that people want to share with us.

Our projects (be they writing, raising our children, whatever they are) and life, in general, are more fun when we are in the best shape we can be to enjoy them.

Ordering our cosmos is about bringing together all the pieces of our lives into one focus…let’s enjoy our lives and all of their parts by making ourselves healthy and ENJOYING it together!

Join my Facebook and Twitter communities and take this challenge with me! Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog to get updates in your inbox…IF, of course, you want to continue this journey together!

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Do you gauge how you feel by the number on the scale? Does it make you feel better or worse?

You know what, Soul does NOT care about that number. Soul delights when it is fed well. Feeding it well involves taking time and energy to nourish it–Soulularly and cellularly. If you spend one week ONE DAY eating the way nature intended (what commercial is that from??), Body will repay you in Soul. You will feel a lightness (even if you haven’t lost anything but sludge) at the end of the day. And if you LISTEN to your body, you will want to do it again the next day.

Listening means giving Body a chance to express itself

You have to ask Body what it needs. And you have to pay attention to the answers. Then, do what it asks. It’s that simple. So often, we run through our day on autopilot that we don’t take time to hear what our bodies are telling us. They need nourishment. Nourishment is not found in the freezer section(unless it is the veggies) or the canned aisle (frozen veggies are more nutritious than canned). Listen to what Body wants and feed it. Not your mouth.

Your mouth is the only thing asking for CHEMICALS

Food scientists have managed to manufacture our foods to the point that what we buy off the shelves isn’t even food anymore. It is a collection of well combined chemicals mixed to give our mouths that “party in the mouth” feeling that Renee Stephens talks about at Inside Out Weight Loss. She contends that aligning your mind with your stomach will allow you to lose weight effortlessly. She is right. If you feed Body according to its NEEDS, then you will stop eating when you are satisfied, not when it is overstuffed. You will eat what makes Body feel good. Sometimes that “party in the mouth” is a difficult invitation to turn down. But, by being MINDFUL (hahaha I love it 😀 ), you can happily decline said invite and rejoice in Body AND Soul when your meal of whole, healthful foods is the host instead the rotten chemicals.

Fitness is how well we let go of extra details and focus on the outcome

If fitness is defined as a state of being fit, it is applicable to more than Body. When we stop minding the numbers, Body and Soul take care of Self. It isn’t just about losing weight or eating healthy. This applies to everything in our lives. Make Mind, Body, and Soul fit by listening and responding accordingly. Be MINDFUL of your actions, as well as your surroundings, and how they make you feel…stick to those activities, people, foods, etc. that make Mind, Body, and Soul feel good.

What is it that you feel when you stand on the scale? Sit down at your laptop? Visit with that whiny friend that never has any good to say? I love to hear from you…how can you get the most out of Mind, Body, and Soul?

At Soul’s core is a single point. We will call it Pivot Point. It is the essence of Self. From it radiates all Facets of who we are (mama, wife, father, son, brother, sister, all of our roles).

To be the best of all our Selfs, they each need nourishing and nurturing. Yet, there is precious little time for that sort of care. When we consider all that has to be done in a day’s time, there is rarely enough time to feed our bodies, much less all of our Elements. So we must find a way to cultivate them efficiently.

By tending to Pivot Point, we tend Facets of Self. They are nourished and become open to receive and accept all events that occur throughout the day that contribute to their care.

Consider that you have a Magnificent Mama Moment. That Plane accepts and engrains that moment and uses it as food. It blossoms and then grows. Perhaps you have an Excellent Employee Episode, that plane is then fed and nourished…ready for blooming. Positive events are Soul Sustenance.

It is cyclical. By fertilizing Pivot Point of Soul, Elements of Self are primed for top performance. Those performances fuel Soul to flower into the most exotic Self.

10. Briskly walk for 30 mins. and follow that with light yoga for 5-10 mins.

11. Do 5 – 15 mins of alternate nostril breathing.

(Now, you may calmly consider what it is that you need to do for the day. Make a list. USE it.)

Notes to help make the day run smoothly:

12. Cook for the day.

13. Eat your meals at the same time everyday.

14. Spend the evening quieting the mind and preparing a to-do list for tomorrow.

15. Sleep at the same time everyday.

While the list seems long and, perhaps daunting, it actually doesn’t take as long as it sounds. With a little prep work (like a menu and a Nourishment Chart ), you will be soaring through it in no time.

Think of this as Special Time for Soul. We know that Special Time for our children (see details of that here) works wonders, think of what Special Time for you can do.

Challenge:

Commit to managing this routine for one month. (Be sure that you are MINDFUL that this is YOUR SPECIAL TIME and be MINDFUL through each step.) Then, have a conversation with Soul and see how it feels. Without a doubt Soul will be more satisfied and will be thanking you through all your Facets.

After returning from a week away, which translated to a week of eating out and running on empty, this body is tired and worn down. Brain functionality is minimal. Mindful living escapes me. Proof that food is fuel.

We are all raised hearing, “You are what you eat.” Yet, there is little of that remembered or practiced. In case we need a mini lesson on cell biology (really trying to suppress the teacher here, but…), our bodies are made of cells which are made of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and water. All the things we find in food. Why is that? *scratches head* Um, duh. Well, because food is what our body uses to make new cells and repair old cells and it is what is converted into energy for us to move and grow. It is our power source. I know you know this, so forgive the reiteration, please. 🙂

Did I mention aspartame, caffeine, or sodium nitrite in that short list of what our bodies need? No. Nowhere is it said that we need preservatives and additives to function. In fact, these chemicals SLOW down your body’s efficiency making you feel sluggish and droopy. This is Chemical Body.

However, when you pump that super efficient energy machine with whole, raw, healthful food and water, then you have just transformed into the finely tuned Chevy Camaro Wholesome Body instead of the broken down ’57 Chevy Chemical Body. And water? Did I mention water? You know that clear stuff that runs from our filtered faucets? That is GOLD. Be mindful the next time you lift your glass and FEEL the water as it becomes part of you.

It all comes down to: The choice is ours. It is up to us to choose to feel good. To choose to feel like the Hot Rod Chevy Camaro. (Speaking of Hot Rod, did you happen to know that good nutrition boosts our energy, boosts our immune systems, and boosts our libido? Yes, that too.) But, we can’t wait until we are older to start taking care of ourselves. We have to start now and if you happen to be raising children, it is of the utmost importance that they are allowed this clean start.

Raw, whole, healthful foods and water are the keys to good health and good nutrition, the prime components of transforming chaos into cosmos. We are here to connect our dots. To bring together our Facets of Self. Without smoothly running machines and engines, we cannot hear clearly what Soul is trying to tell us in order to connect these planes together. When Mind is crystal and Body is well, Soul rejoices and shows you the way to its peace.

Listen to your body. Feed and nurture it as though it were an infant. Mindfulness requires clarity of thought. Make super nutritional choices and transform chaos into cosmos.